All right, let's turn back to
Exodus chapter 9, 7 verses. Before we get into the
spiritual meaning, all this was written for spiritual meaning.
But before we get into that, let's notice a few physical things. Now, when I was studying this,
my mind ran with some things. And I was greatly blessed and
I started cutting them back out because there's just not enough
time. But there's a few things that I want to say, physically speaking. All right, look at verse one.
It says, Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh and
tell him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people
go that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to let them
go and will hold them still, behold, the hand of the Lord
is upon thy cattle, which is in the field. Upon the horses,
upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, upon the sheep,
there shall be a very grievous murrain and murrain means destruction. Uh, it's a plague of cattle.
It's a pestilence of cattle. You remember, uh, West Nile virus
that was sweeping everything, what, eight years ago? Uh, I
know a man who his horse died of that. Um, the dictionary compared
it to anthrax. Okay. It's a destroying of their
possessions. That's what it is. Verse 4, And
the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the
cattle of Egypt, and there shall nothing die of all that is the
children of Israel. And the Lord appointed a set
time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land.
And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle
of Egypt died, but of the cattle of the children of Israel died
not one. Not one. Now here's the first
thing I want to say. God's people lose things. They lose things. It says right
here that the Egyptians cattle died. The Israelites did not. They didn't lose one. But the
first thing I want to say is God's people lose things. My father lost his wife. He lost his wife. I cannot imagine that. I can't
imagine losing Hannah. Morning after morning, night
after night, I mean really, some people have to go through
things. God was merciful and gave him
a wife that we all love just as much. I mean that. I mean that. We do. Do you know why? It's
because she loves Christ. That's exactly why. And I dwelt
on that. I don't like to call her my stepmother
because I love her too much. But I love her because she loves
Christ. That's why some believing families
lose a child. I don't even know what to say
about that. I don't even have anything to
say about that. God's people are not exempt from the heartache
and pain of this world. They are not. But I can tell
you this, every single thing that God's people lose is for
the good and salvation of a soul and for the furtherance of the
gospel. Every single thing that God's
people lose. It's for the good and salvation
of a soul and the furtherance of the gospel. I know some people
that have lost their children and they don't have to worry
about those children. They do not. Based on the fact that David
said about his own child, he cannot come back to me, but I
can go where he is. Based on the fact that the scripture
says the Lord saveth the simple. Based on the fact that our Lord
is kind and good and merciful, there is no doubt in my mind,
none that those children are in glory right now. They are. And that child is more mature
spiritually and physically than I am right now. And that child
knows Christ more spiritually and physically than I do right
now. And that child is robed in the
righteousness of Christ and sees it with his own eyes. And that child has the freedom
and the ability to walk up boldly to the throne of God and ask
him a question and then sit at his feet and listen to his answer.
Isn't that something? Don't have to worry about those
children. The salvation of a soul. At my mother's funeral, Brother
Don Fortner preached the eulogy. And brother Henry preached the
message. And one thing that stands out in my mind is during the
message, he said, everything that God does is for the furtherance
of the gospel. Okay. Now, everything that happens,
things happen that move your world. Things happen that rattle
you, rattle your foundation a little bit, shake things up a little
bit. Every single thing that God does is for the furtherance
of the gospel. He looked right at me and he
said, Gabe, this is happening for the furtherance of the gospel.
And here I stand. Here I stand. I know the path
that I was on. I know the path that I was on
back then. I know what all was going on
in my life and I can tell you if I had not lost my mother,
I wouldn't be a preacher. I don't believe I would be a
preacher. I wouldn't be pastor here. I
can tell you that because I can tell you about some events that
happened. I wouldn't be pastor here. I would hope that you would
have a pastor here, but it wouldn't be me. So if we at all are thankful
for what the Lord has done in bringing us together, and I am,
I am, then I need to thank him for all the good that has come
from my loss. Isn't that something? If I had the choice, would I
have ever chosen that loss? Absolutely not. Never. But can I look back now and say
the judge of the earth did right? Yes, I can. Yes, I can. Now, God's people do suffer loss,
but I do also want to tell you this, OK? Our Lord has put a
difference, really. We just read over here in Exodus
chapter nine that he said all their cattle are going to die,
but not one of my people, not one of their cattle is going
to die. Now turn over to Psalm 91. I'm about to tell you something.
And as a pastor, this goes out on the internet. And then you
suffer the consequences, whatever it is. So I called, uh, my dad
on a few things to get his opinion on it before I speak it. But
I'm about to tell you something that I believe with all my heart
and I believe it because we're about to read it. And I believe
God can't lie. And what we're about to read
is very matter of fact. Okay. very matter of fact. Now, Psalm 91, look at verse
1, it says, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of
the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will
I trust. Now, when do I trust in Him and
when is He my refuge and my fortress? In glory, No, yes, and right now. Verse three, surely he shall
deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome
pestilence. He shall cover thee with his
feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall
be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day.
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not
come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast
made the Lord which is my refuge even the most high thy habitation.
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling. It was a great relief to me when
I truly understood this. That God loves his people. God
can protect his people and God will protect his people. From all these heinous crimes
that are in the world. These horrible heinous crimes. I talked to two generations older
than me. And if all of the professing
believers that I know of, the people I have met, the people
I've never met, the people I've heard about, I've heard about
men throughout the past few decades. And of all the professing believers
of the true God of Scripture, That the two generations older
than me knew of. Aside from the apostles and the
martyrs. Who were tortured for the truth
sake. They were tortured because they
said you deny this gospel or we're going to take your head
off. Or we're going to burn you at the stake. tortured for the
good and salvation of men's souls and the furtherance of the gospel.
Can you not say that came from everything that happened to the
apostles and the martyrs? They were tortured for the good
of men's souls and the furtherance of the gospel. Other than them,
we couldn't think of one example. of one professing believer that
died in a heinous, wicked way, in an evil, malicious way. Now,
I'm not saying it has never happened. I would never, I don't know what
all has happened. I'm not saying it will never
happen. I'm not saying that, but what I'm saying is God loves
his people. God can protect his people and
God will protect his people. We know of medical reasons. We
know of cancer. We know of germs. We know of
diseases. We know of car on purposes. They're
not car accidents. We know of old age. But I don't know of one. I don't
know of one. And we are so afraid, we hear
about stories of horrible things that happen to people in dark alleys and in
the light of day, just heinous things. You read about it in
the paper and you think, oh, man. And right here in Psalm 91, verse
7, a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy
right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. I know of a pastor's
wife, years ago she worked for a bank, and there was a bank
robbery. And they held her at gunpoint
and made her go unlock the safe. And the police came and caught
those men and put them in jail, but she was fine. You think she
was scared? Absolutely. Absolutely, she was
scared. We are naturally a very afraid
people and we're going to see a thousand fall at our side and
ten thousand at our right hand. But unless God purposes it to
come to you, nothing can touch you. Nothing can touch you. My wife is safe. She's safe. Safe. Our God has put a difference
and it's real. It is real. That's the first
thing. The second thing is this. We
must acknowledge the hand of our God in all things. Look at
our text back in Exodus chapter nine. Exodus chapter nine, verse three
says, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle. A few years ago, Hurricane Katrina
wiped out New Orleans. Who did that? Mother nature or
God? We know God did that. There was
an older lady at that time who came into my store that I had
and asked me to give a donation to the Hurricane Katrina victims.
And I did. We ought to help those in need.
And then she was suddenly thanking me for the donation and getting
ready to leave and saying how sorry she was that it happened
to those people. And she said, God never wanted
this to happen to those people. And I said, ma'am, God sent Hurricane
Katrina to these people. And she didn't like that. Not
at all. But we know who did this. We
know who does all things. Psalm 147, 18 says, he causes
his wind to blow and the waters flow. God does all things. Now, let
me give you a harder one, OK, a harder one than that. The Holocaust. The killing of all those Jews. Who did that, Hitler or God? What does Deuteronomy 32, 39
say? See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me.
I kill and I make a love. I wound and I heal. Neither is
there any that can deliver out of my hand. In Revelation 1 18,
he said, I have the keys of hell and death. I hold them. Well, that makes God sound unjust
and it makes you sound insensitive. Think about what I'm saying.
It makes God sound unjust and it makes me sound insensitive. My heart breaks for those Jews. My heart breaks for those Jews. It breaks for those Jews who
have rejected God. It breaks for those Jews who
have denied the Christ. It breaks for those Jews who
do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Jews are
still waiting on the Messiah. It breaks for those Jews who
are his own earthly nationality and his own received him not.
I'm being serious. I'm not trying to be facetious.
It breaks for them. But to say God didn't want that
to happen is to say God is weak. He didn't want it to happen.
But Hitler, man, he is to say God is weak, and we know better
than that. Whatever happens to us, we must
acknowledge the hand of God in it. Now, here's the third physical
thing. In our text, verse 2 says, For if thou refuse to let them
go, and wilt hold them still, Behold, the hand of the Lord
is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon
the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep.
There shall be a very grievous murrain." Egypt made Israel poor. Egypt made Israel poor. They made God's people poor,
and now God is going to make them poor. He's going to take
away all their possessions, all of their means of work. He is going to make them poor.
Now, turn with me over to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 verse 16 says,
Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things,
but condescend to men of low estate. And that doesn't mean
be kind to the little people. It means be a little people.
Condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. recompense to no man evil for
evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be
possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all
men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place
unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay,
saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger
feed him, If he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou
shalt heap coals of fire on his head and be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good. Evil is taking vengeance onto
your own hands and disobeying. Good is obeying God and leaving
it in his hands. That's what he's talking about.
So God will repay. We don't have to repay. All right,
now let's see what the Lord has to say spiritually about this.
Back to the text in Exodus chapter 9. In verse 3, the Lord tells Egypt,
which is the world, what He's going to destroy. Verse 3 says,
Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle, which is
in the field. Now the word cattle means something
bought. It means something possessed,
a possession. Everything that you say is yours
is going to be destroyed. Everything. Everything that you have bought
with your own hand is going to be destroyed. What did our Lord
tell His people to buy? In Proverbs 23, he said, Buy
the truth and sell it not. Buy the truth. That possession
is not going to be destroyed. He said, My word is never going
to return void. It's never going to go away.
It's going to be forever. It will go with us in glory.
It will not be destroyed. Buy the truth and sell it not.
Verse 3 says, Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle,
which is in the field upon the horses. And the word horses means
the vehicle or the means of flight escape. Your means of escape. Whatever
it is you trust in. He's going to be destroyed. Psalm
146, three says, put not your trust in princes nor in the son
of man in whom there is no help. Um, nobody can help me. Nobody can help me. There is nobody that can help
me. I don't care what I need. There's
nobody that can help me. Um, I don't care who they are or
what they have. There's only one person who can
do anything for me really. And that's Christ. Everything outside of Jesus Christ
is going to be destroyed. Um, I, we all have things in
our life. We all, we get ourselves in a
pinch, right? And we need to get out of that
pinch and we turn to horses. And princes and things in this
world. And it's all going to be destroyed, it's all going
to come to nothing, don't trust in it, whatever it is, don't
trust in it. But Psalm 125 verse 1 says, They
that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot
be removed, but abide forever. Now here's what I want to say
about this. Trusting in the Lord is hard. It seems like it would
be so easy. Just don't worry about it. Just
trust in the Lord. It is the hardest thing on earth to do. We want to believe that we can
trust in the Lord, but our flesh says, just in case, I think I'll
get my hands involved because I trust me. Right. If we will honestly take every
ounce of our trust, not most of it, but every ounce in our
trust and put it in the Lord's hands, the best possible scenario
will come. That is the honest truth. That
is the honest truth, and it's the hardest thing to do. But
that trust is never going to be destroyed. We can count on
it. Verse three in the text says,
upon the asses. And that word means to smear
with pitch. To smear with pitch. Noah's Ark,
he smeared the whole thing with pitch. Within and without, right? And what that was is an atonement,
a covering. Our Lord said everything you
think will cover your own sins is going to be destroyed. That song says nothing can for
sin atone, nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam
and Eve tried to cover their sins with fig leaves. And it seems silly, but that's
exactly what the world is doing. They are trying to cover their
sins with fig leaves. It's all going to be destroyed,
but if the blood of Christ is your only covering, then you're
going to be safe. I want to make, we're, we're small in a, in number
tonight. And I want to make some sense
of, of these things. I wrote all this stuff down,
but I, uh, if a person will trust in the
blood of Christ, they don't have anything to worry about. If your heart's true answer for
everything is, what do you think about this? There's a story,
and I don't have any idea if it's true or not, but I've heard
it all my life about a man whom the Lord revealed himself to,
and they asked him, you know, what do you know about this? And he said, I don't know anything
about that. He said, I'm just a sinner, nothing
at all. And Jesus Christ is my all and he's in all. And I said,
well, what about what about this issue or what about that? And
he said, I don't know. He said, I'm just a sinner, nothing at
all. Jesus Christ is my all and all. Well, what do you have to do
to be saved? What about this and what about
that? I don't know. I don't know. I'm
just a sinner. Nothing at all. And Jesus Christ
is my all and in all. When He died, I'm just pleading
His blood. I am just pleading His blood. I just plead and beg that His
blood was shed for me. If that is your only covering,
then you're safe. You're safe. Your brain doesn't
have to figure out anything besides that. You are safe. That covering will never be destroyed. It'll never be destroyed. Verse
3 says, upon the camels. That word means burden bearing. It said how you treat a person. That is the thoughts and the
intent of the heart. That's what that is. The Lord
is a discerner of those things, the thoughts and the intent of
the heart. And you know what the thoughts of man by nature
are? Only evil continually. Only evil continually. Let my own mind get off of the
subject of Christ and then, I'm telling you, evil is coming in.
Only evil continually. But do you know how the Lord
put a difference with His people? Here's what the scripture says.
He has given them the mind of Christ. Isn't that amazing? The mind of Christ. May this
mind be in you. The mind of Christ. That mind
is never going to be destroyed. This world's heart is a heart
of stone. How do God's people differ? Bob
Coffey was talking about it Sunday. I'm going to take out that heart
of stone and we'll put in heart flesh. We'll put in the heart
of the man, the heart of Christ in a person, that heart will
never be destroyed. It won't be taken away. Verse
three says upon the oxen, and that word means to plow, to break
forth, that's a man's works. His works. Our Lord says, I'm
going to destroy all your works. All your works. You know what
God's people have? Christ's work. They have Christ's. You know, I am not pleading and
I do not possess my own works at all. Not at all. I plead Christ's works. I have none. I have not that
great work on the cross is never going to be destroyed. Never.
Verse three says upon the sheep, and that word means to migrate. You know, being called a sheep
is not a flattering term, sheep are filthy, filthy animals. And they're dumb. And all we like sheep have gone
astray, we have migrated. Wandered. And because of that,
destruction is coming. That's the problem with this
world. Wandered. And destruction is coming. We
sing prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. I can get honest. I feel it. prone to leave the
God I love. But do you know how God's people
differ? He said, I'm going to put a difference here. You know
how they differ? That song says, here's my heart, Lord, take and
seal it. Seal it. God's people are sealed. God's people are kept by the
power of God, stayed upon Jehovah, standing on the rock. And that
foundation is never going to be destroyed. Never. Verse four
says, And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel
and the cattle of Egypt, and there shall nothing die of all
that is the children's of Israel. Everything that they have, everything
they've been given, none of it's going to be taken away. None
of it. And we just said what they've
been given. It's not going to be taken from and the Lord appointed
a set time saying tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the
land. We can't do that. We can't say tomorrow, I'm going
to do this and this. We have no promise of tomorrow,
but the Lord can. He knows exactly what's coming
tomorrow. Tomorrow. The Lord shall do this
thing in the land. Verse six. And the Lord did that
thing on the morrow and all the cattle of Egypt died. But of
the cattle of the children of Israel died, not one. And Pharaoh
sent and behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites
dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was
hardened and he did not let the people go. Can't Pharaoh see. Man, can't Pharaoh see? Can't he see the sovereignty
and the ability and the might of God? Can't he see that God
is God? Here's the answer. No. Isn't
that amazing? Isn't that amazing? He can't. He is dead. He's blind. He's deaf. It's we. I can't believe he chose me to
say. I cannot believe it. I really can't believe it. Think
about all the people. The Lord said, blessed are your
eyes, for they see in your ears, for they hear. That's the difference. That is the difference. The difference that God has put
between his people and his world, he's opened our eyes. Pharaoh,
he represents every sinner outside of Christ. And it is something
we should pity for people outside of Christ. Our hearts break for him. Our
hearts break for him, and the Lord is just, the Lord is right,
and his people are a blessed people. He's put a difference
in them, given them something that's never going to be taken
away. All right, let's stand together.